Sixth round of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy begins on Monday
Sixth round of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy begins on Monday.
LAHORE (Web Desk) – With four rounds remaining in the four-day first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the six teams are fighting for every point as the sixth-round of the tournament has commenced on Monday (today), to secure a berth in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final, which will be held at Karachi’s National Stadium from 9 to 13 December.
According to a press release by the PCB, table-toppers Central Punjab are aiming to consolidate their position when they host Northern, who are at the bottom of the points table, at Faisalabad’s Iqbal Stadium.
Central Punjab, who are without the services of Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali and young fast-bowler Naseem Shah as they head to Australia for Pakistan’s World Test Championship matches, enter the round at the back of a thrilling draw against Sindh, in which they looked certain to come out as winners for the most part of the final day’s play.
Northern have struggled to click over the course of the tournament. However, they are taking heart from a remarkable double-century by Zeeshan Malik.
The 22-year-old struck 216 runs in Northern’s first innings against Southern Punjab at Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot, and registered the fourth best highest individual score this tournament. He followed it up with a second innings score of 59.
Northern are being led by Pakistan U19 captain Rohail Nazir as Umar Amin takes a break from the leadership role to concentrate on his batting – a decision that paid dividends with the left-handed batsman scoring 156.
This will be the season’s last first-class match at Iqbal Stadium.
Quetta’s Bugti Stadium, which saw the return of first-class cricket after 11 years this season, is also hosting its last fixture of the tournament, being live-streamed as Southern Punjab host Balochistan.
Southern Punjab took the field under the leadership of Sami Aslam as their regular captain Shan Masood takes a flight to Australia on the opening day of their sixth-round fixture.
With an added responsibility on his shoulders, Sami is hoping to stretch his good form with the bat into this fixture after the left-handed opening-batsman scored a century against Northern.
Southern Punjab are ranked second at the points table and are the only other side than Central Punjab in the tournament, to date, to have won a match.
Balochistan, ranked fourth, are hoping to fill in the vacuum which has been created by the non-availability of leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who tops the charts for most wicket with 21 scalps.
This absence of Yasir is bound to add more responsibility on left-arm orthodox Mohammad Asghar, who, along with the leg-spinner, returned a four-fer in the first innings of a drawn contest against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa earlier this week at Bugti Stadium.
Balochistan’s Imran Butt is on the radar of the fans after cracking a brilliant double-century in the last round. The 23-year-old scored 214 which helped him to the second spot in the list of the batsmen with the most runs this tournament.
In the third match of the round, third-ranked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are hosting fifth-ranked Sindh at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s top four batsmen were amongst the run-getters in the previous round with captain Sahibzada Farhan, Israrullah, and Ashfaq Ahmed, who has the most runs this tournament, scoring half-centuries, and Adil Amin putting up a gutsy century.
Sindh also have to wary of off-spinner Sajid Khan, who took eight wickets, including a five for 36 in the second innings, against Balochistan earlier this week. Sindh’s Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq and Kashif Bhatti have left the side for the national duty.
Sindh edged out in securing a draw against Central Punjab at Faisalabad was due to Sarfaraz Ahmed’s fighting second innings half-century, which would have uplifted the Sindh’s captain confidence.
That coupled with the presence of Fawad Alam, Saad Ali, Khurram Manzoor and a young and upcoming Omair Bin Yousuf in the batting has made getting Sindh batsmen out a daunting proposition.
All three matches began at 1000 at their respective venues.
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy sixth-round fixtures (4-7 November)
Central Punjab v Northern, Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad
Southern Punjab v Balochistan, Bugti Stadium, Quetta
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa v Sindh, Abbottabad Cricket Stadium, Abbottabad
